A protest in support of Maria Kolesnikova, a member of the Belarusian opposition coordination council's presidium, detained at the Belarus-Ukraine border, started on Tuesday in Minsk, a Sputnik correspondent reported
MINSK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th September, 2020) A protest in support of Maria Kolesnikova, a member of the Belarusian opposition coordination council's presidium, detained at the Belarus-Ukraine border, started on Tuesday in Minsk, a Sputnik correspondent reported.
Earlier in the day, a fellow council member Pavel Latushko said that she had been forced to flee to Ukraine, but had torn her passport right at the border.
Several hundred people gathered at the square near the entrance to the Kamarouski Rynak food market, holding white-red-white flags and chanting slogans in support of Kolesnikova.
According to the correspondent, approximately five people were detained at about 15:00 GMT.
At about 16:00 GMT, the participants started marching through the city accompanied by minivans without license plates as well as police vans.
As the march was moving via the Maserava avenue, several minivans and paddy wagons pulled over and people wearing and khaki clothes, as well as riot police uniform, rushed out and began arresting protesters, some of whom engaged in clashes with the personnel. The avenue is partially closed and arrests are continuing.
Meanwhile, two other high-ranking coordination council members Ivan Kravtsov and Anton Rodnenkov have left Belarus and are now in Kiev, according to the council.
The coordination council was established by the opposition amid the protests against the results of the August 9 presidential election, won by President Alexander Lukashenko.
